This is the final chapter of the book and it like all good fairy tales it has a happy ending. Or at least it’s a mostly happy ending - Gobbolino finally finds a safe and loving permanent home - but it’s complicated. He has had to be stripped of some of his witch’s cat magical powers so that he can finally become a kitchen cat. He doesn’t seem to mind, or at least thinks that it’s a fair exchange, but I’m a little bit sad that he’s had to give up the things that make him special in order to be accepted.
I think this goes back to Terry Pratchett’s argument in Witches Abroad that there is not really such a thing as a happy ending. Unless the heroine/heroes/happy couple die immediately after reaching the goal/returning home/getting married it’s not really an ending. And even when the main characters are happy there’s all sorts of collateral damage along the way - what about the families of the mice Gobbolino killed? How long did it take for the Orphange to find a new Cook and was the Porteress overstretched and the children somewhat neglected until they did? How did the Punch and Judy Troupe find a new Dog Toby? And even once they did how much longer did it take for them to escape from the harmful gossip about one of their actors being a witch’s cat?
I think I’m probably oversensitive about a narrative that suggests that becoming more normal is the way to be accepted. Becoming normal isn’t an option for a Queer Autistic Chronically Ill Person but that hasn’t stopped plenty of people suggesting that I try! But Gobbolino is happy to be a Kitchen cat - he never wanted to be a witch’s cat so he doesn’t seem to feel that he has lost anything (apart from the ability to swim and to speak to humans and he doesn’t seem particularly bothered about even those). Maybe a more appropriate equivalent is the procedure I just had to correct a heart defect - the process wasn’t fun but I’m thrilled to have had the troublesome tissue removed. Perhaps all transformations inherently involve some kind of loss but many of them are worth it?

Anyway, i should probably stop discussing what happens in this chapter until I’ve done the nine and three sentence recaps.

9 Sentence Recap
Gobbolino survives the cauldron but is changed
The Hurricane Moutain Witch is angry but Sootica rescues him
She drops him off the broomstick and into a river
Gobbolino finds he can no longer swim
But he is rescued by the MIll children
They are not sure if he is their old Gobbolino but they take him home
Their father checks him for magic and says that he can stay
It turns out that the Brothers regularly visit this farm
Gobbolino contentedly falls asleep at the feet of the farmer’s wife

3 Sentence Recap
Sootica saves the cauldron-transformed Gobbolino
He falls into the same river by the Mill he fell into before
This time he can stay at the Mill-Farm for ever

The first example of love in the chapter is Sootica resucimng Gobbolino from the still angry Hurricane Mountain Witch. She grabs the witch’s broomstick, calls out to him to join her on it and flies him far away from he screaming witch. She obviously loves her brother and feels enough connection with him to save his life even though she still doesn’t approve of him and his desire to be a Kitchen Cat:

“Don’t thank me!” Said Sootica. “You are a disgrace to the family, and I never want to see your face again. But you are my blood-brother after all, and I did not want to see you hurled down the mountainside.”

Gobbolino obviously loves his sister too, even though he disapproves just as much of her vocation. In spite of his extreme fear of heights, the trauma he has just been through and his own uncertain future, he is concerned about Sootica’s safety if/when she returns to the Hurricane Mountain Witch. Fortunately she is able to reassure him that she will be fine.
Sootica’s final act of love is to push the terrified Gobbolino off of the broomstick. He is far too sacred to jump. Pushing him is definitely “tough love” - it isn’t what he wants and she doesn’t sugar coat it with comforting words but it is what is necessary. She knows that he is capable of landing on his feet even if he can’t see that yet - her love shows her that he is stronger than his own image of himself.

The Mill-Fatm children rescue the struggling cat they say in the river into because he is their beloved Gobbolino (he is too far away for them to recognise) but use because he is a living creature in trouble. That is a different kind of love than a personal relationship. It’s beautiful and important.
After they get him out of the river they aren’t sure if he is their Gobbolino or not. It’s not just that the journey has changed him and that he has gotten older - the magic of the cauldron has removed his witch’s cat abilities to swim or speak to humans and has even emphasised the tabby patterns of his fur (though his eyes and paws are unchanged). Their love for Gobbolino is robust enough that it can cope with him having changed. They may be surprised that he can no longer perform his old tricks but they accept that. Even though they decided that he must be the same cat that they used to know their behaviour suggested that they would also have been able to open their hearts to a different kitten. Their love is expensive rather than excluding. (I find the challenge of holding a personal connection kind of love without letting kit become excluding really hard - harder even than maintaining the more abstract love for all fellow creatures which is definition also challenging at times)
Just like in chapters three and four the Farmer acts out of protective love for his family. He checks the rescued cat carefully for potential magic. Unlike the children his love requires drawing firm boundaries. It’s harder for me to accept as love - if he did reject Gobbolino again that would be certainly be unloved me towards a living creature who can’t help what they were born as - but it is a result of his love for his still vulnerably young children to protect them from potential danger. When he can find no trace of magical ability in the cat he decides that it can not be the same Gobbolino. He is able to take the ore obviously loving path of letting the children keep this cat they they have obviously bonded with and begins to open his own heart to building a relationship with him too.

Gobbolino obviously has affection for the Mill-Farm children (and gratitude to them for having rescued him twice) - we aren’t sure if it yet counts as love. He undoubtedly did love the three Brothers (and the baby) and is overjoyed to meet them again as visitors to the farm. They are equally delighted to see him. They seem to have flourished since he left them bonding further with their new parents and with their playmates at the farm but are still able to pick up their old bond with Gobbolino. There is enough love in their lives that they would have coped perfectly well if he had just remained a memory to them but are thrilled be reunited. They ask him Oh where, oh where have you been? And why haven’t you come to see us before? not because they were terribly unhappy without him but because their childish love and trust in him meant that they never considered that he wouldn’t make good on his promise to return to them. Even the baby is distracted from it’s favourite activity of picking dandelions to come and cuddle the long lost cat. As adults they will presumably gain a more realistic understanding of limits and possibilities but hopefully the strength of their love will remain.

Gobbolino finally feels safe and settled. He imagines loving generations of this household - the children’s will grow up and have children of their own (fairy tale happy endings never included things like infertility or even the family deciding to start a new life elsewhere). He is able to be content because although the family members us age and change he sees an unbroken chain of love and belonging stretching out into the future. The Framer seems to be imaging the same but in a more understated and practical way

“There are worse kitchens than this, Gobbolino, and worse home than ours,” said the farmer, filling his pipe. “While there is a fire on the hearth, there’s a place beside it for you, and a saucer of milk and a bit of fish on Sundays. Is that true mother?”
“That’s true, father!” said the farmer‘s wife and Gobbolino purred his gratitude.

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So that’s the whole book (sorry about the assorted delays) I’ll try to get to the Floralegium and Blessing for this chapter soon. Then i would like to read the About the Author note in a similar way to the chapters and do an overview and whole-book Floralegium.
What do you think of this chapter? Where do you see love in it? What have i missed? And where do you stand on whether this is truly a happy ending?